Other
Scientific paper
May 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006sptz.prop30678h&link_type=abstract
Spitzer Proposal ID #30678
Other
Scientific paper
Comets are icy bodies that sublimate when close to the Sun, producing distinctive unbound atmospheres (comae) and tails. The active comet population we see today mainly consists of bodies transferred via dynamical interactions with the giant planets from the outer solar system (from the Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud) into the inner solar system. Recently, however, a new class of comets has come to light: the main-belt comets. These objects display cometary activity, yet possess no clear dynamical link to the outer solar system and thus likely formed where we see them today in the main asteroid belt. As such, they may be fundamentally compositionally distinct from classical Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud comets. We propose to use MIPS on Spitzer in conjunction with optical facilities on Mauna Kea in Hawaii to determine albedos for these surprising objects, as well as for a number of dynamically similar but inactive comparison objects. With these Spitzer observations, we hope to better characterize the main-belt comets in the context of both other comets from the outer solar system and their inactive neighbors in the main asteroid belt.
Fernandez Yan
Hsieh Henry
Jewitt David
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